Life's a Beach

Frolicking through Large European cities, check, trekking through central Africa to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat and snacking on goat skewers (Matt, not the gorillas), check. It seemed only natural with the diversity of this vacation that a gorgeous beach destination with historical significance would be next, and off to Zanzibar we went. Stone town, the old city on the island, was this amazing narrow-alleyed, African/Colonial/Arab dilapidated city with stunning, ornately carved wooden doors. During the slave trade there were two areas in Africa where everyone was taken to to be sold. Zanzibar was the "point of no return" on the Eastern side of Africa. It's horrible, of course!!!! But the island itself was very intriguing.

It was also a significant place during the spice trade. Matt and I went on a fascinating spice tour where we heard about the process of growing, drying, manipulating, etc... spices from the ground up. We tasted many of them as raw plants to try to figure out what each of them were.

To top it all off, the water off of the island was a stunning turquoise blue - and the weather was not too hot, not too cold, not too many mosquitoes, perfect! There were long stretches of uninhabited beaches and firm white sand. We went scuba diving one morning, which was awesome, but after we got in the boat Matt chucked over the side. While we were waiting in the water to get in the boat he swallowed some sea water and it made him a little sick. Poor guy, he was fine after that though.

Me, contemplating the blue seas

Besides Matt's arms, clearly neither of us had seen the sun in a while.

Impromptu photo shoot - mind the gut.

There was a rock pathway from the beach by our hotel that went straight out to a swimming lagoon in the middle of the ocean - awesome!

The lobby of our hotel

On the wooden boat getting ready to go scuba diving.

Ready to conquer. We saw three octopus, a sea turtle, beautiful fish, sea anemones, sea urchins (one of which Matt stepped on while we were swimming in the lagoon - and I believe the spikes are still in Matt's foot), a fish that looked exactly like the coral it was in, and much more. It was delightful.

Our cute spice tour helper guide displaying the lipstick plant. Just open up the shell, squish the orange seeds, and voila - sumptuous circa 1985 lips.

The strangest looking spice that ever was... nutmeg. Holy fuscia, who knew?

Our guide also made us several things out of leaves while we were going through the tour. Note the neck tie, purse to hold our spices, hat, glasses, and a frog necklace. Sweet!